Meaning of Idiom
From the Cradle to the Grave: From birth to death; the entire period of one’s life; throughout one’s life. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,2Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.,3Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.
Examples Of Use
“The old woman was 104 years old. She lived in the same house from the cradle to the grave.”
“He was loyal to his king from the cradle to the grave.”
Origin
Used since at least the early 1700’s.
“From the cradle to the grave” appears in Richard Steele’s The Tatler (1709) 4Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
“In a word, to speak the characteristical difference between a modest man and a modest fellow; a modest man is in doubt in all his actions; a modest fellow never has a doubt from his cradle to his grave.”
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Sources
| ↲ 1, 4 | Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. |
| ↲ 2 | Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. |
| ↲ 3 | Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010. |